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19 November 2017
Auckland, New Zealand

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND TRAVELOGUE

Kia Ora! It is an expression in the Māori language, and simple means "hello". New Zealand is one of my bucket list and now finally I achieved! Finally I blog about my New Zealand trip after a lot of you requested. Followers have been keeping DM me on Instagram asking where is the travel itinerary for my trip to New Zealand. Well, here you go. Since there are a few places that I had visited, thus, I had separate them into few posts. And this post, is all about hotels that I stayed, things to do, what to eat and what to buy in Auckland.

AUCKLAND
So why Auckland? You may notice we had visited North Island instead of South Island of New Zealand, that's because me younger sister is studying Master programme at Auckland. In order to send her there, I and my family members are decided to visit New Zealand at the same time since we never been there before. Some of the followers / readers DM me asked why I travel to North Island, why not South Island? Well, now you know why~ I don't really have enough time to reply you guys one-by-one on Instagram during my trip. So I guess this post explained it all.HOTELS
We went to New Zealand for 12 days and we were at Auckland for few days (the first and last few days). So you can see there 2 different hotels that we had stay in Auckland as follows :

Best Western President Hotel Auckland

For the first few nights, we stayed at Best Western President Hotel. By its name "president", we thought it will be very grand but it's not. Lol. However, it is just located at the central of the city so we think the strategic location was one of the point to stay here.

Since it is located in Victoria Street, it was surrounded by many convenient store, restaurant and retail shops etc. It was really convenient for tourists.

Address : 27-35 Victoria St W, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand.

Grand Millennium Auckland

For the last few nights, we stayed in Grand Millennium Hotel. It was more cozy and expensive than Best Western but you may need to drive out to reach restaurant instead of walking distance. If you have more budget for your trip, you may consider this hotel.

Address : 71 Mayoral Dr, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand.THINGS TO DO
As usual, when I travel with my family, we don't really research on what's the famous things to do in Auckland. Instead, we just free and easy. We will visit any places once we reach there and some of them are not even tourist spot.

Park

Their park is super pretty I'm not gonna lie. I can jogging in the park like day every single day. All the trees here are so beautiful! These kind of trees I only saw mostly in the movie / drama and I can't believe I really seeing this in real life. And with the weather of 10-12 degree celcius, walking at the park is just feel so good.

Sky Tower

The Sky Tower is an observation and telecommunications tower located at the corner of Victoria and Federal Streets in the Auckland CBD, Auckland, New Zealand.The Sky Tower has stood tall at 328 meters as an icon of Auckland's sky line for almost 20 years.

At the base of the Sky Tower, the SKYCITY Auckland entertainment complex is home to two world-class hotels, Auckland's premier dining precinct with over 20 bars and restaurants, a 700 seat theatre and a world-class Casino*. There is a lot to explore at SKYCITY Auckland.

Since we had kid with us (my niece), so of course we were visiting the zoo! Auckland Zoo is a 16.35-hectare zoological garden in Auckland, New Zealand, situated next to Western Springs park not far from Auckland's central business district. I saw many animals that I never saw before such as flamingo, ringtailed lemur(King Julien in "Madagascar" movie) and many more.

Auckland Zoo is currently home to over 875 individuals representing 138 species, and covers 16.35 hectares (40 acres).

The zoo is surrounded by beautiful habitat, almost like I'm in Lord of the Ring movie scene. No wonder they choose New Zealand for the movie shooting.

Look at these trees~ So marvellous! What I like about New Zealand is there are so many different kind of trees and all of them look so different but beautiful in their own way.

Let me give you a test. Do you know what is the animal for the photo shown above? It isTasmanian Devilcommonly referred to as Taz, is an animated cartoon character featured in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. There are still many kind of animals in the zoo, make sure you check out the travel vlog at the bottom of the post to find out more.

We have a drink and chill at the park before we leave the zoo. Fall in love with this weather and feel don't want to go back to Malaysia hahaha.

Address : Motions Rd, Auckland 1022, New Zealand.

Business Hours : Daily | 9:30am-5:30pm (last entry at 4:15pm)

Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium

Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium is a public aquarium in Auckland, New Zealand that was opened in 1985. Located at 23 Tamaki Drive, it was the brainchild of New Zealand marine archeologist and diver Kelly Tarlton.Kelly Tarlton's showcases over 30 live animal exhibits in spectacular habitat displays, including the world's largest Antarctic penguin colony exhibit and amazing underwater viewing tunnels. They are so cute!

Their fantastic Animal Adventures offer unique and thrilling 'up close' underwater encounters with huge sharks, including the all new Shark Dive Xtreme and Shark Cage experience. You can also head out onto the ice to get up close to their amazing penguins with Penguin Discovery.

There are so many variety of sea animals included stingray, starfish, crab, jellyfish, shark, octopus and many more. See my selfie with the stingray from the photo above. Actually I was sitting there to take a rest, then suddenly the stingray come near to me and stop right there. They are super cute!

The centre of the city and entertainment Aotea Square is a 4500 meter wide open air. In winter it is host to the Aotea Square ice rink, an indoor ice skating rink. We went to the Indoor Entertainment to play games. We had a lot of fun here!Address : 50 Mayoral Dr, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand.

Countdown

Countdown is a New Zealand full-service supermarket chain and subsidiary of Progressive Enterprises, itself a subsidiary of Australia's Woolworths Limited. If you said you want grocery shopping, this is it! You can find this everywhere.

WHAT TO EAT

Again, we don't really do research on what's the famous cuisine on the list. Basically we just eat at any cuisines that nearby our place / attractions for convenient purposes. The foods here are quite similar anyway.

Whether you’re after an ice cream for the kids, or to share a cheeseboard over a glass of wine, Sky Café and Kapiti combine to offer iconic NZ food in a unique setting. Aghhhh... I'm craving for mint chocolate ice cream now while blogging this.

Location : Level 50 @ Sky Tower

Katsura - Seafood, Steak, Teepanyaki

Katsura Restaurant is a flagship restaurant of the Millennium Hotels Group. The restaurant is a great option for an authentic Japanese experience.It was the best dinner ever! Special thanks my brother-in-law for the treat because it was the most expensive dinner of this trip. It was located at our hotel - Grand Millennium and those foods were so delicious with the friendly Japanese chef.

One night, we were searching place for dinner. Then, we saw many people queue at the this Japanese cuisine. Since we all are fan of Japanese foods, we decided to give it a try. Actually it is not expensive and great food. Always a line outside a good sign of a good place to eat.

Address : 28 Lorne St, Auckland, 1010, New Zealand.

Robert Harris

This Robert Harris Cafe is located in every where. New to hospitality this cafe will be great first step into the Auckland cafe scene.

We had visited this cafe at different places. We enjoy our big breakfast and egg benedict there.

Fast Food Restaurant

Whenever you have no idea what to eat, fast food always is your best choice! Visited McDonald's and Burger King in Auckland. Tried their Bacon McMuffin and it was taste great! No offence, but you can't find a bacon mcmuffin here in Malaysia because of non-halal.

Sushi Tomi - Japanese Restaurant, Sushi Bar

Drop by this Japanese cuisine after we shopped at Countdown in Westgate. They have variety of sushi and noodles. The price range are reasonable.

Indian Cuisine

Ever since I came back from India, I always craving for the authentic Indian foods but I can't find any in Malaysia. We visited two indian cuisine in New Zealand and one of them is located in Auckland. Authentic Indian foods and so so so delicious!

Random Cafe

Yes, I stated random cafe because I forgot the name. Travel for so many days and I tend to forget about every little thing. We drop by at this cafe after we take a walk. I love their tomato quiche because it was delicious and the owner is so handsome. Lol

Chinese Cuisine

If you feel bored with the Western food, try to grab some food at the Chinese cuisine. Please beware that all the portion is so huge. If you're small eater, try to order some for sharing instead of order just for yourself.

Paparich

The last day in New Zealand, we were craving for Malaysian food so we dine at Paparich. Feeling funny because we just order a toast, milo dinosaur, chicken rice and 2 more drinks, end up spending about RM180++ because of the NZ currency. Lol. Well, if you're travelling so many days in NZ like us and you're craving for Malaysian food, you know where you go.

Supermarket Take Away

Beside of Auckland, we also have several road trip to visit other cities as well. So most of the time we take away some food or snacks for us to eat in the car while travelling. Some of the distance is about 2-3 hours or even 5-6 hours, some of the place don't have a restaurant and we don't want to stop because of time consuming. So take away food will do.

WHAT TO BUY
We bought many chocolates, cosmetics (only me hahaha), skin care, souvenirs and many more. I'm too lazy to take photos so I just make a video to talk about my haul in New Zealand. Don't forget to check out the video below.